Skip to main content

Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German : from Middle High German kranz ‘garland’, ‘wreath’; a metonymic occupational name for a maker of chaplets and wreaths, a habitational name for someone who lived at a house distinguished by the sign of a garland, or a nickname for someone whose hair was tonsured.
  • Dutch : variant spelling of Krans, cognate with 1.
  • In some cases it may also be one of the several German spellings of the Slovenian habitational name Kranjec (also found as Krajnc or Kranjc), denoting someone from Kranjska province (Latin Carniola, German Krain), an old name for the historical central part of Slovenia.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : ornamental name from German Kranz or Yiddish krants ‘wreath’, ‘garland’.

Join the Family

Your partner in parenting from baby name inspiration to college planning.

Subscribe